>> pelley: tonight, you don't have mail. the u.s. postal service announces cuts affecting every mailbox. nancy cordes has the story. what's the biggest threat to america? the outgoing defense secretary leaves a stark warning. >> it would have one hell of an impact on the united states of america. >> pelley: we may have the ingredients for the biggest winter snowstorm yet this season. david bernard fills us in on when, where, and how much. and as the nation debates gun sales, one police unit in california is taking guns away from those who shouldn't have them. john blackstone there. >> when you're going to take their guns, they're not happy. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley.

>> pelley: good evening. neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds-- unless it's saturday. the u.s. postal service added that qualification to its legendary motto today. the service is broke and it will drop saturday mail delivery in august. the troubles of the postal service are as big as the agency itself. the u.s.p.s. delivers 40% of all of the mail on earth and it has more than 522,000 full-time workers, which makes it among the top civilian employers in america. but the age of e-mail has turned out to be a much bigger challenge than snow or rain or gloom of night and here's nancy cordes. >> reporter: saturday mail delivery dates back to the inception of the postal service itself in 1863. but today the postmaster general

said times have changed and his agency must, too. >> when you lose the first class volume that we've seen, you can't make ends meet from a financial standpoint. the choice is either change some of the service or raise prices. >> reporter: starting this summer, he said, mail carriers will no longer deliver first class letters, mailers, and catalogs on saturdays. though they will continue to deliver packages and express mail. the postmaster general says the move won't result in layoffs. instead he'll cut back on overtime and rely on retirements. there is, however, one catch. >> i believe that it is not legal. >> reporter: republican senator susan collins of maine was one of many lawmakers who warned today the postal service needs congressional approval to cut service. >> the problem is that every time the postal service cuts back on its service it loses customers! if it loses customers, it loses

revenue. >> is this legal? (laughter) yes, it is. >> reporter: the postmaster general insists the move will save $2 billion a year. the postal service has threatened to do this so many times in the past 150 years. how do we know that you're serious this time? >> we are very serious because as you take a look at the finances, we have to make some change. >> reporter: the postal service lost $16 billion last year, $41 billion since 2006, partly because of a drop in demand, partly because of enormous mouse pension obligations. and partly because of promised postal reform bills that never came which house speaker john boehner acknowledged today. >> the congress in its wisdom has tied their hands every which way in order for them to actually run the post office in a revenue-neutral way. so congress needs to act. >> reporter: taxpayers don't

fund the postal service but they will be left holding the bag if it goes under and can't repay the u.s. treasury all the money it's had to borrow to make up for those recent losses, scott. >> pelley: nancy, thank you. what do americans think of this? when we asked about ending saturday tkhr *euffully a cbs news/"new york times" poll last june 71% said they favored it. 24% were opposed and this surprised us today: turns out there are more post offices in america than wal-marts, starbucks and mcdonald's combined. there is a much bigger washington fiscal crisis coming in three weeks, that is when automatic across-the-board budget cuts go into effect unless congress finds another way. in washington lingo, those budget cuts are called sequestration and david martin has discovered that sequestration is already cutting into national defense. >> reporter: late this afternoon, the 5,000 crew members of the aircraft carrier

"truman" got the word: they will not be leaving their home port of norfolk, virginia, for the persian gulf this friday as planned. their deployment is being postponed due to the looming budget crisis. vice admiral mark fox says that means the u.s. will have only one instead of the normal two aircraft carriers in the persian gulf. what does that mean operationally? >> what it does change is the opportunity to have additional capability immediately. there will be additional time distance associated with bringing another vessel over if that's required. >> reporter: do you know how much you're saving by doing this? >> in the hundreds of millions of dollars. >> reporter: the postponement of the "truman's" deployment along with that of a guided missile cruiser is the most visible of the budget cuts known as sequestration. come bounded by the answer sense of a new budget of fiscal year 2013. a double whammy which has a normally affable defense

secretary panetta hot under the collar. >> this is not a game! this is reality. >> reporter: if sequestration takes effect at the beginning of march, panetta says the department of defense will have to cut $46 billion in the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. >> we will furlough as many as $800,000 d.o.d. civilians around the country for up to 22 days. they could face a 20% cut in their salary. you don't think that's going to impact on our economy? >> reporter: the cuts will not affect combat operations in afghanistan but troops in the field would take a hit in the pocket-- a planned pay raise would be cut nearly in half. >> pelley: david, thank you. you just saw outgoing secretary of defense leon panetta in his fair well speech at georgetown university. well, he also warned today that a hostile country could attack

america by computer-- a 21st century pearl harbor. >> we are literally the targets of thousands of cyber attacks everyday. everyday. thousands of cyber attacks that are striking at the private sector, strike at silicon valley, strike at other institutions within our society, strike at government, strike at the department and our intelligence agencies. and cyber is now at a point where the technology is there to cripple a country, to take down our power grid system. to take down our government systems. take down our financial systems. and literally paralyze the country. >> pelley: now, the pentagon set up a cyber command to practice both offense and defense on the computer battlefield. now cyber command is expanding five-fold and we asked bob orr

to look into who's behind the computer threat. >> reporter: despite its imposing facade, the u.s. federal reserve could not stop the latest attack. on sunday, hackers broke into a fed computer system then stole and published the private phone numbers of 4,000 u.s. bankers. that breach followed recent revelations that cyber spies had also infiltrated computer networks at three american newspapers: the "washington post," "wall street journal," and "new york times." investigators traced those attacks on the papers to government-backed hackers in china looking to monitor coverage of chinese politics. everyday state-sponsored spies-- the majority from china-- are infiltrating key government and business computer networks inside the united states. u.s. cyber command estimates american companies are losing $250 billion a year in intellectual property. how often are they coming after us? >> it's more than daily.

>> reporter: retired general michael hayden who headed the c.i.a. and the national security agency says cyber enemy cans do much greater harm. >> most of the stuff out there now is espionage but in a peculiar way if i can get on your network and steal your stuff i already have the ability to break your stuff. >> reporter: hayden and other security analysts warn critical systems could be knocked out in an attack launched by computer. while no u.s. infrastructure has yet been successfully targeted, power grids, transportation systems and financial networks are all potentially vulnerable. until he retired last year, sean henry ran the f.b.i.'s cyber unit. is a serious cyber attack against some critical system in the u.s. inevitable? >> i think that it is very, very likely. >> reporter: near term? >> i think that is near term. i'm quite frankly surprised it hasn't happened yet. >> reporter: officials have described the potential attacks

in the most dire terms, warning of another 9/11. scott, one official said decades ago terrorists came after us with planes, the next weapon could be key boards. >> pelley: bob, thank you. there is more troubling political violence in north africa. in tunisia, where the arab spring began more than two years ago, a top opposition politician was assassinated today. he was 48 and was gunned down today as he left his house in tunis. that sparked violent street protests and a promise from tunisia's prime minister to hold elections as soon as possible. we are about to get a reminder from that winter can be harsh in the northeast. a major snowstorm is on the way and david bernard is our cbs news weather consultant. david, three questions: what? when? how much? >> we're going to answer all of those tonight, scott, and the answers probably aren't what people are going to want to hear. let's give you an idea of how big of an area this is going to cover. all of new england, the state of new york, northern new jersey,

northeastern pennsylvania under a winter storm watch. this green area running the corridor between boston and providence, that's a blizzard watch that's in affect for friday and saturday. now, this is the weather map, the forecast map for friday evening and we think a major low will be just off of the jersey shore. it's going to be strengthening all day with very heavy snows developing all over southern new england and even into the new york city area and watch, this is going to track northeast friday, friday night into the day saturday and by this point we think a full-blown blizzard is likely along the maine coastline, including portions of southeastern massachusetts and all of rhode island, maybe even eastern connecticut. blizzard conditions are going to be possible there. how much snow? where you see this pink in southeast new england where that blizzard watch is we think up to two feet of snow might occur. what about back toward new york? we think somewhere maybe six to ten inch range. but the devil's in the details. it's a little bit early. the storm is really going to crank as we go friday into

friday night. we'll be able to refine those totals, scott, and just where the worst of it may be overnight tonight and during the day tomorrow, so stay tuned. >> pelley: get out the snow shovels. david, thank you very much. cbs news has learned that lance armstrong is going to be sued tomorrow. s.c.a. promotions paid the former cycling champion more than $12 million in bonuses for his tour de france victories. now that armstrong has admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs, s.c.a. wants its money back. a surprise today from the boy scouts on whether to admit gays. we'll go from here to timbuktu to meet the man who saved priceless works of history. and breathtaking views of the earth when the "cbs evening news" continues. my medicine alone doesn't always all the congestion relief i need to sleep. [ female announcer ] adding breathe right nasal strips

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begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. the boy scouts of america put off a decision on whether to end its national ban on gays. in a statement they said: until may. michelle miller reports the scouts were getting pressure from both sides. >> i say they've had 103 years. the time is now. >> reporter: jennifer tyrrell is disappointed that the decision did not come today. on monday, she and other gay rights activists were at boy

scouts headquarters in irving, texas, hand delivering more than a million signatures urging the scouts to reverse its exclusion of gay members. >> until they adopt a policy of nondiscrimination across the board i still have work to do. >> reporter: tyrrell was the den mother for her eight-year-old son's troop in bridgeport, ohio. last april she was asked to step down because she's gay. >> having to tell my son that we weren't good enough was the hardest thing i've ever done. i'm sorry. i won't quit until until mother doesn't have to do it. >> reporter: on the opposite side is kelly shackelford. he's president of the liberty institute which focuses on preserving religious freedom. his group petitioned the scouts to continue the ban. >> what's great about america is people can join the groups that they believe with and they have that freedom to form their own group if there's not a group that believes like they do. >> reporter: faith-based organizations sponsor more than one million scouts, about 70% of

the membership. in 2000, the supreme court ruled that boy scouts can prohibit gay members. if the scouts lift the ban, that would lead local church groups without legal protection. >> all these troops will be in danger and will be open to litigation. so i think if they have more time, if they look at this, if they listen to what the troops themselves and the sponsoring religious organizations, the churches, believe on the issue, i think that's a good thing. >> reporter: there are groups that say don't rescind the ban because what's going to happen is it's going to open us up to lawsuits. >> i would like to say to them shame on you for worrying more about a lawsuit than the welfare of a child. >> reporter: there are very strong opinions on both sides which is why the boy scouts leadership wants to add the time for more deliberate review. and, scott, they vote in may. >> pelley: michelle, thank you. john blackstone takes us on a

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with special agent john marsh of the state's department of justice as his team prepared to confiscate guns from a man in stockton, california. >> he's a felon and he has two handguns still registered to him. >> reporter: it's tense work. the people the agents are looking for are convicted felons or mentally unstable and they have guns. the state has a list of about 20,000 such people with 40,000 guns. but because of budget restrictions there are only 33 agents to find them. you've got a backlog. >> a huge backlog right now. >> reporter: because it takes so much manpower to do this safely. >> this type of enforcement is very labor intensive when you're going after armed prohibited people it heightens the level of potential violence. >> police department. >> reporter: in the six years agents have been seizing guns, they've prevented shootouts by showing up unexpectedly in force, as many as ten agents. >> when you're going to take their guns, they're not happy.

>> definitely the folks on this list are people who should not be in possession of a gun. >> reporter: california attorney general kamala harris. >> they are those people who have been proven to violate the law and present a threat to public safety and i'm going after them. >> reporter: last year, harris' agents seized 2,033 guns. on the night we were out it took five and a half hours to seize five guns. >> have a good night. >> reporter: bringing in five guns tonight, there's still 40,000 out there. does it seem like you'll never catch up? >> sometimes it feels like we're treading water. >> reporter: the agents could be close to going underwater. 3,000 new names are added to the list every year. john blackstone, cbs news, stockton. >> pelley: well, the earth can look like a much more harmonious place when you look at it from 200 miles up. have a look at some of the photos taken in just the last few days by canadian astronaut chris hadfield who's on the

international space station. hadfield takes as many pictures as he can and posts them on the internet. here's the mississippi river as it enters the gulf of mexico. a volcano high in the andes mountains of south america. the bright lights of london at nighttime. hadfield said this view of clouds over africa took his breath away. and speaking of africa, some of the world's most ancient manuscripts have been saved from destruction by one man. he'll tell us how he did it. next. it's not what you think. it's a phoenix with 4 wheels. it's a hawk with night vision goggles. it's marching to the beat of a different drum. and where beauty meets brains. it's big ideas

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>> >> pelley: we end tonight in a place legendary for being remote: timbuktu. it was a center of learning centuries ago and last week french forces chased out islamic militants who had seized timbuktu and tried to destroy its relics. one man outsmart it had marauders and elizabeth palmer bringing his story here from timbuktu. >> reporter: fabled timbuktu these days is a small, dusty town, but proud of its noble heritage as a center of islamic culture, art, and medieval

scholarship. last april it was invaded by islamic extremists who drove into town with their heavy weapons and took over. abdul kader haidara was there. he's one of the keepers of a trove of priceless arabic manuscripts. the extremists arrival, he told us, triggered his emergency plan. "i bought every tin box i could find, the kind we storehouse hold goods in" he said. "and my staff and i filled them with manuscripts until the library was empty." manuscripts including a 12th century astrology charles and an ancient arab genealogy. abdul kader haidara quietly distributed the boxes to local families to hide inside their humble homes. you scattered them all over town. then he fled from timbuktu where the extremists were imposing strict islamic law. they staged public floggings and destroyed ancient tombs.

so there was every reason to fear for manuscripts painstakingly restored and so precious that since 2004 the library of congress had been making digital copies for safety. when pictures emerged last week of timbuktu's manuscripts burned-- probably by retreating extremists-- the world was horrified. butless than 1% of that collection belonging to the government was lost, says abdul kader haidara, and as for his 30,000 documents hidden away in the boxes, they're all safe. does that make you a hero? "well" he says "i think of myself more as a rescuer." first and foremost, though, he's a guardian and savior of one of the world's great historical legacies. elizabeth palmer, cbs news, mali. >> pelley: and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night.

defense attorneys for the three teen boys charged with child pornography for making sex videos say that the whole thing is just been blown way out of proportion and there should be no charges at all. in fact, the attorney for the youngest boy who was 14 at the time told our peggy fox what the boys did was stupid. but it was not criminal. >> i don't think these girls are victims anymore than the boys are victims. they are all foolish. >> defense attorney is representing the youngest of three boys from west springfield high school charged with child pornography. he has seen the videos and says there are ten of them that run from 10 seconds to three minutes. he says they were all taken